Southern African Food Systems Building a Research Community based on Stakeholder Dialogue

Trends and drivers of change in southern African food systems Urbanisation Changing food preferences and consumption behaviour Increasing NCDs Emerging business opportunities Land and agrarian reform Climate variability and other environmental stressors including water stress …

Food Systems include a set of ‘Activities’ … Land use change under production but feedback

… all of which lead to a number of ‘Outcomes’ Food System OUTCOMES Contributing to: Social Welfare Income Health Wealth Social capital Political capital Human capital Food Security Availability Access Utilisation Environmental Conditions Land use Water use Biodiversity Soil degradation GHG emissions

Key Question and Interested Parties Science Agencies Resource Managers Business Managers Policy Makers Development Agencies e.g. NRF, ICSU-Africa improved GEC/food security science e.g. farmers, range conservation NGOs improved food security & nat resource mgmt e.g. purchasers, processors, retailers improved food system efficiency & sustainability e.g. SADC, national ministers improved food security & env policies e.g. USAID, FAO, CARE improved livelihoods & reduced vulnerability How would different food system governance arrangements affect food security and land use in Southern Africa? Core Q which has a wide range od communities interested in it but for different reasons… we want to talk to everyone on the slide- esp ILSI and resource managers… We recognise that these different stakeholders all have different worldviews and we believe that ILSI SA could have interests in answering this core Q so what we want to do is to elicit the specific Qs of interest to the ILSI community from their point of view.. Natural Scientists Social Scientists Science Questions e.g. agronomy regional hydrology land degradation biodiversity loss climate change e.g. markets and trade resource tenure institutions governance social capital

Recognising that … Importance of private companies in food security and land use issues is growing. Demand from large purchasers drives production.

SAFGOV project objectives To build an community of research skills, closely linked to a range of stakeholders across southern Africa’s public and private organisations that can Co-design and jointly undertake research on how to improve Southern African food system activities and enterprises to enhance food security and land use outcomes in the face of future challenges.

Background Importance of private companies in food security and land use issues is growing. Especially in how demand from large purchasers drives production Governance arrangements among these actors are poorly understood, especially in terms of environmental impacts and food security outcomes

SAFGOV Conceptual Model Health Sector Consumers Demand Signal Material Food Sec Agencies Civil Society Government Value Chain Nat Resource Agencies Demand Signal Material Producers Input suppliers

SAFGOV Workshop 1 (October, NRF): Key Points Three main issues were identified for defining boundaries of study:   Focus on maize vs focus on wider food system? Quality of diet is key for food security so focusing on maize alone may not be of the greatest interest to food security agencies. Recognised that maize had been identified as a case study for a more substantial research project on regional food security so questions should also be thought of in terms of the whole food system. South Africa or Southern Africa? Issues in South Africa relate more to conversion of arable land to e.g. game parks or mining. On a regional basis the overarching issue is conversion of native vegetation to arable. Near term (multi-season) or long term (multi-decade)? 2030

SAFGOV Proposed Boundaries Demand Signal Material Consumers Value Chain Producers Government Civil Society Food Sec Agencies Nat Resource Agencies Input suppliers Health Sector What: impact on landuse of chicken (“transition” meat; indirect impact through feed); maize (direct landuse); dairy (indirect landuse through feed and direct landuse through grazing); all important for food security. Where: South Africa, Angola, Zambia & Zimbabwe : four different governance systems and potential landuse changes due to climate change.

SAFGOV project objectives To build an community of research skills, closely linked to a range of stakeholders across southern Africa’s public and private organisations that can Co-design and jointly undertake research on how to improve Southern African food system activities and enterprises to enhance food security and land use outcomes in the face of future challenges.

Recognising… Importance of private companies in food security and land use issues is growing. Especially in how demand from large purchasers drives production Governance arrangements among these actors are poorly understood, especially in terms of environmental impacts and food security outcomes

SAFGOV Next Steps Main aspects of future research proposal clear set of researchable Qs based on s/holder information need develop scenarios based on main uncertainties Undertake analyses of food sec and LU options futures within each scenario Different stakeholder roles? collaborative rather than merely consultative being part of discrete work packages as well as the whole… identifying potential co-funders and helping champion project other roles?

SAFGOV Next Steps Need to establish how we will continue to work together as a virtual team Importance of knowledge management and information sharing “platform” as a way to support this: place to develop a proposal a lot of uses for KM benefits for stakeholders who become our research partners

SAFGOV Next Steps Next steps and actions Who else do we need to invite at this stage?. E.g. Centre of Excellence on Food Security (U Pretoria & UWC)? Joint development of a proposal, to include Stmt on ethics and IP Roles of participants in (i) proposal prep and (ii) project delivery